slanders of the Witnesses yet he manifests his concern for Peter by his compassionate looks testify'd his sorrow for his Sin and drew not his Eyes away till he had look'd him into Repentance Nay tho' our Head be now in Heaven yet he hath a compassionate sense of the Extremities of his Members and accounts all the Affronts Persecutions and Reproaches offer'd to them as done to himself Thus when Saul then a Persecutor breath'd out nothing but Blood and Slaughter against the Churches He cries from Heaven Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Acts 9. 4. He is a merciful faithful High-Priest that is touch'd with a feeling of our Infirmities and bears a compassionate Love to all his Members in Misery And the same mind ought to be in us that was in him we ought to sympathize with our Fellow Members in distress and remember the afflicted as being our selves in the Body Heb. 13. 2. liable to the same Tryals and Parts of the same Mystical Body of Christ. If any Member be in pain all the rest are discompos'd and when some of the Members of Christ are discompos'd 't is natural for the rest to sympathize with them and be compassionately sensible of their trouble Thus we are commanded to weep with them that weep Rom. 12. 15. To bear one anothers Burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ Gal. 6. 2. 7. Our Love must be constant and abiding as Christ's love was Christ's love to us was not for a small space of time but lasting and uninterrupted He loved his own and he loved them to the end John 13. 1. And the nearer his end appeared the higher marks of his Love did he give them the failings and miscarriages of his Disciples did not remove his Love or cause him to withdraw his affection their ignorance and unbelief after all his Teachings and Instructions their fiery unseasonable Rage against the Samaritans their Pride and Ambition Rashness and Cowardise and the base Perfidiousness of Peter did not incline him to lay aside his Thoughts of Love or leave the work of our Redemption unfinished but he still loved them to the Death Thus must we love our Brethren overlook their Failings pass by their Infirmities admire what is lovely and neglect what may cool our Affections This new Commandment must be every day renewed by us this is a Lesson we must be always Learning and a Duty we must be always imploying our selves about We must still be abiding in our Love till we enter among that happy Society where all Sins and unlovely Imperfections shall be done away and we shall always solace our selves with pleasing views of the Divine Purity and Holiness and the numerous Pictures and Representations of it among Angels and Glorified Saints 2. Our Love to one another must resemble Christ's Love to us in the outward Expressions of it 1. In the intimacies of our Friendship and Familiarity one with another Christ so loves all true Christians as to enter into the strictest bands of amity with them he is nearly united to them as their Head and Husband and calls them his Friends and his Spouse he is the Head and they are the Members the Vine and they are the Branches the Foundation and they are the Building the Root and they are the Fruit. The Communications of his Grace the quickening assistances and influences of his Spirit are imparted to them he writes his Law in their Hearts and causeth them to run in the way of his Commandments sanctifies their Natures pardons their Sins prevailingly intercedes for them and prepares them by Grace for Glory He hath communion with them in his Ordinances familiarly converseth with them in his Sacraments and is continually sitting them for that happy Fellowship with Father Son and Holy Spirit which glorified Saints injoy While he was on Earth he selected some few Persons prepared them by Grace for his Society and then made them his familiar Friends To them he clearly revealed the Mind and Will of God to them he unfolded the Mysteries of his Love and Commands of his Father to them he explained what was spoken to others in Parables these he blessed with his Heavenly Discourses and Pious Instructions with the special tokens of his Love and familiar Expressions of his Friendship Indeed he did entertertain a Iudas in his Family but he made a strict Profession as well as the other Disciples and was not known to be Hypocritical by any but Christ himself and had not the wisdom of God designed by his means to bring about the great work of our Redemption no doubt but this Son of Perdition would have been discarded and disown'd He did indeed eat with Publicans and Sinners but though for this he was falsly accused as their Friend and Companion yet he was not so he eat with them as their Physician and not as their Companion did not own them for his Friends but sought by his holy Discourse and obliging Carriage to make them so And the same Mind ought to be in us that was also in him Though Christianity allows not moroseness and incivility towards others yet all needless familiarity with Wicked Men is forbidden Our Eyes with Davids ought to be upon the Faithful in the Land Psal. 101. 6. To delight in wicked Company may justly fill us with doubts of our own sincerity we may know we are passed from Death to Life if we love the Brethren 1 John 3. 14. And we have just reason to fear we are yet in a state of Death if we delight in the Ungodly Common civilities may be paid to Wicked Men but special friendship is to be reserved only for those who we hope are the Friends of God If we love God above all surely we shall associate most with them that may warm our Hearts and raise our Affections and provoke us by their Example to an holy imitation We ought to imitate the Royal Psalmist who was a Companion of all them that feared God Psal. 119. 63. The Poverty and Meanness of such did not lessen his delight he priz'd a Saint in Rags beyond a Wicked Man though cloathed in Princely Robes or Imperial Purple We ought to have a friendly regard to all true Christians and though some because of their eminency in Grace suitableness to our Temper Neighbourhood and the like reasons may be our more intimate Friends Yet must not we despise any because of their meanness but as we have opportunity give them the special tokens of our Friendship too Vile Persons must be contemned and Scandalous Professors must especially be avoided but our intimate Acquaintance ought to be the Servants of God and the more Holy any are the more ambitious should we be of their Friendship and Converse 2. In our hearty Prayers one for another Christ was very earnest in his Prayers for true Believers they were the peculiar objects of his Love and purchase of his Death and therefore he prays for them in a peculiar
Countenance how chearful the Discourse how sweet the Sleep and how full of Content is the whole Life of the Peaceable Minded Man How lovely a melody in the Ears of God and Men doth an Assembly of such Christians make when united together in acts of Religious Worship How much more pleasant are the smooth and even ways of Peace than the rugged Paths of Discord and Contention Is it not much more delightful to behold the Heavens smiling upon us with a serene and chearful Countenance than frowning with Clouds or big with Storms and Thunder Is it not much more sweet to sail in a quiet and calm Sea than to be tost about with a Tempest and be continually in fear of every rolling unruly Wave to hear Harmonious Sounds than grating Janglings and to dwell in a well Governed City than in a wild and savage Wilderness Peace is the way to the truest Pleasure and indeed is itself the greatest Felicity Hence the Angels in their holy Anthem when they wished the greatest Happiness to Men knew not how better to express their Sense than by saying On Earth Peace Good Will to Men Luke 2. 14. 3. Peace is the Churches strength Peace is the sinew of Society as Mony is of War the Cement that holds the parts together and distinguishes the Congresses of Men from Herds of Beasts or which is as bad the tumultuous Confusions of the Rabble Christian Churches might be immortal did they not kill themselves by Divisions the deepest Wounds have been given to Christianity in the Houses of its pretended Friends by Heresies and Schisms rending and tearing the unity of the Body He must be a great Stranger in the History of the Church who knows not that it flourished while it walk'd in love and injoyed Peace among its Children but the adding to the Foundation the Wood and Hay and Stubble of their own Inventions and dividing thereupon gave occasion to the rise of Turk and Pope and all the dismal consequences thereof Divisions stop'd the progress and cramp'd the growth of Christianity and hath so of Reformed Christianity to this day The most successful policy of our Enemies whereby they have done us the greatest mischief of all hath been by fomenting incouraging and cursedly improving our intestine Feuds We have foolishly put Weapons into their Hands or rather been destroying our selves while they have look'd on with Scorn and Laughter Were we but peacefully united among our selves we should quickly dishearten our Enemies and laugh at all the attempts of Rome and France and Hell for our ruin and Destruction Peace would be a mighty Bulwark to defend us and would better prevent the Invasions of our Foes than all our Wooden Walls on the Sea or Fortresses and Castles by Land 4. Peace tends to the comfort of the Church there can be no comfortable communion of Saints no bearing each others burdens no communicating the experiences of the workings of Gods Spirit in one anothers Souls of the answer of our several Prayers and various methods of God's dealings with us in his different ways of Discipline and Comfort so long as we are at variance among our selves When Souls groan under the burden of Sin and Guilt never was Drink so welcom to the Thirsty Traveller as the converse of truly Spiritual Christians to restore such in the Spirit of Meekness and speak Peace unto them from the Scripture and their own Experience But where Divisions are this cannot be had or if it be in some measure is often confined to an inconsiderable Party and each particular division wants the assistance of the rest so that the breach of their Catholick Love and Communion necessarily makes a breach in their comfort and hinders the mutual sympathizing assisting and comforting one another 5. Peace tends to the increase of the Church when our Lord repeated his Petitions for Unity he twice alledgeth one and the same reason that the World might know that God had sent him John 17. 21 23 As if the union and love of his Followers were the strongest proof of the Divinity of their Master and the powerfullest perswasive to Jews and Heathens to acknowledge and receive him for their Lord and Saviour as if his excellent Doctrin admirable Precepts and extraordinary Miracles would not do without it and indeed though Instruction be necessary and People perish for want of Knowledge yet Instruction without Example will do little good and no Example is more open to observation than that of Peace and Love and the want thereof in the Preachers of Truth makes the best Doctrin in their Mouths suspected hardens the Wicked in their sin and tempts many to Atheism If you speak with disagreeing Tongues Unbelievers will say you are Mad and sit down in the Seat of the Scorner to allude to 1 Cor. 14. 23. 6. Peace is a great means of Edifying by the means of Grace The Apostle in Eph. 4. 16. speaks of the close and intimate Union of the Body of Christ as a necessary means to receiving increase from Christ and edifying it self in love and Col. 2. 2. being knit together in love is laid down as a means to the full assurance of understanding to the full practical perswasion of the Truth and excellency of the Gospel and the want of this render'd the solemn Assemblies of the Corinthians fruitless and barren 1 Cor. 11. 17. St. Paul chargeth them with a sad miscarriage in their Spiritual Traffick growing worse in the use of what should have made them better the Holy Supper of the Lord and the reason is given Ver. 18. I hear there be Divisions among you Divisions abate the fervency of our Prayers blunt the edge of our Devotions seize on the vitals of Christianity evaporate the life and power of Religion in impertinent squabble and unless Almighty Grace prevent will quickly spread like a Gangrene so as to eat out the heart thereof 7. Peace in Christian Churches is an Emblem of Heaven the more that part of the Church which is Militant here below doth abound in Love and Peace the more it resembles that part which is triumphant above This is indeed the great difference between Angels and Devils Heaven and Hell the Devils have great degrees of Power and Knowledge perhaps not much below what Angels have but Angels and Glorified Saints abound in Love Sweetness Benignity and live in the joyful uninterrupted exercise of mutual Endearments whereas a Spirit of Malice and Envy Hatred and Revenge is the very complexion of Satan and temper of Hell But O how happy will it be to dwell in that Society where there 's no Mistake or Envy Ignorance or Prejudice or carnal Interest to occasion the least Jar or Discord but all pure Peace Seraphick Love and perfect Harmony as with God so also between themselves where the strange Fire of misguided Zeal is extinguished by the more powerful Flames of Heavenly Love and the unhappy names of dividing Sects are no more known where
manner For Peter he prays for strengthening confirming Grace Luke 22. 31. and he put up a famous Prayer for his Disciples and all that should believe on him Iohn 17. that they might persevere in the Faith live in Unity increase in Grace and at last be translated to Heaven and abide with him in Glory And he hath laid a special Obligation on us to do likewise Hence in that excellent Form and Directory of Prayer Mat. 6. 9. he teaches us to say Our Father intimating that if we would gain acceptance for our selves we must come to God as in union with Christ and his universal Church Our Prayers must not be only for our selves but for the whole Church of God throughout the World we must hold Communion with all Christians in Faith and Love and an holy Profession thereof and while absent in Body must be as present with them in Spirit and still beg of God for them a freedom from the same Spiritual Evils and enjoyment of the same Spiritual Priviledges we would desire for our selves If the Psalmist under the old Law pray'd for the Peace of Ierusalem Psal. 122. 6. 137. 5 6. and makes such solemn Protestations never to forget her surely it is our great duty now the Church is surrounded with Enemies so potent and numerous never to forget Spiritual Zion but always be mindful of our Ierusalem If the legal Priests and Watchmen were bound to be God's Remembrancers and give him no rest till he establish and make Ierusalem a Praise in the Earth Isa. 62. 6 7. Then surely it is the duty of Spiritual Watchmen under the Gospel to put up their Petitions with fervour for the distressed Christian Churches and Servants of God We ought with the Apostle to give Thanks to God always for all Saints and make mention of them in our Prayers Eph. 1. 16. Be compassionately sensible of all their Troubles and continually bow our Knees before God that all his dealings may tend to their good that their Lives may be a credit to their Profession and that their Faith and Love and Patience and Humility and Self-denial may be effectual to convince Unbelievers enlarge the Kingdom of Grace and add new Inhabitants to the Kingdom of Glory 3. In forgiving one another Christ so loved us as to forgive all the injuries and affronts we have offered to him pardon of Sin is the great purchase of his Death And though our Sins be more numerous than the Hairs of our Head and exceed the Sands of the Sea for Multitude yet if we sincerely repent of them we may be assured they shall be forgiven And as Christ doth thus testify his love to us so must we testify our love to one another Have they wrong'd and injur'd us we must not bear a Spirit of Revenge but freely forgive them God will not forgive us except we forgive others Mat. 6. 11 14 15. Where God pardons any he gives them a heart to forgive others That Servant in the Parable was very disingenuous who when his Lord forgave him Ten Thousand Talents cast his Fellow Servant into Goal and would not forgive him an Hundred Pence Mat. 18. 23. And are not we guilty of the same disingenuity who when we know what numerous Talents God hath forgiven us cannot pass by a small injury of our Brother against us This act of Christian Love you see is strictly required and a special degree of it is due to true Christians above all others We are bound indeed to forgive Enemies while continuing and remaining such so far as not to return Evil for Evil to entertain no revengeful Thoughts and perform all general Offices of Justice and Charity towards them But a Friend and true Christian that hath offended us and returns to his Fidelity must be forgiven and again treated and entrusted as a Friend if he gives sufficient Evidences of his Sorrow and Repentance for former Faults For is he the Friend of God and shall he be esteemed as our Enemy Is God reconciled to him and shall we still retain our Enmity against him Surely if God be his reconciled Father we ought to be his reconciled Brethren also Account him no longer an Enemy but a Brother beloved Philem. 16. 4. In our Alms and Bounty to the Necessitous Christ though he himself lived on the Charity of others and had not a sufficient supply for himself and Disciples yet we find he did out of that small pittance give something to the Poor for in this Chapter Iudas who was the Steward of Christ's Family bore the Bag and was to disburse Mony for those uses for which his Lord designed it When he went out after his receiving the Sop the Disciples thought he was gone either to buy Provisions for the approaching Passover or to give something to the Poor John 13. 29 thereby implying it was our Saviour's custom to give to the Poor And if he thus loved his poor Members surely we ought to do so likewise Those who have a fruitless love to others have but a fruitless Faith to themselves They who pretend love to their Brethren and yet relieve them not according to their ability their Professions of Religion are vain We are bound indeed to supply the Wants of all even of Strangers and Enemies according to our ability and opportunities But to true Christians we are bound to open our hands more wide and be more liberal and bountiful Do good to all especially to the Houshold of Faith Gal. 6. 10. God hath made us but Stewards of the Earthly Blessings we injoy and given us our Stock of Worldly Goods that we might lay them out on those whom Providence hath made the Objects of our Charity he interprets that as done to himself which is done to his Servants and Christ's distressed Members Christ is resolved at the day of Judgment to insist on this Duty more than on any other The true Christian is himself devoted to God and therefore will devote all he hath to him will honour him with his Substance and the first Fruits of his Increase expend the Blessings received to Cloath Feed and Supply the Naked Hungry and Distressed If God hath intrusted him with many Talents he will not be so unreasonable as to think he hath therefore liberty given to pamper his Lusts or gratify his Fleshly Appetite but like a Wise Steward will seek out fit Objects for his Charity and seeing his Lord Redeemer out of that little which he had gave to the Poor will imitate his great Example 3. and because much is given will be proportionably liberal and bountiful 5. In our Counsels and admonitions Christ was very frequent and earnest in his pious Counsels and Instructions he did not only heal the Diseases of Mens Bodies but the chief design of his coming was to free the Sons of Men from all their Spiritual Maladies and Distempers Throughout his whole Life he was still explaining to Men the whole Will of God and